I’m sitting in a motel in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Wednesday ought, but let’s journey back to Redondo Beach, California for a commercial door and two gates. It was too cool to sit outside when I was visiting, but this looks like a place that would be lovely when it’s warm. And the gate.
Whether or not you like the door, you have to like the name of the shop. But the door’s pretty good too.
This house in Redondo Beach really caught my eye, both for its gardens and its doors. This one’s beautiful on a very human scale. I’d live here. Nothing more to say. Just enjoy.
On my Monday walk, you had a chance to see one of the multi-million houses we saw while out walking in Manhattan Beach, California. The area of Redondo Beach where our daughter and her husband live doesn’t operate on that scale even though the prices of homes in California will surprise you and not in a good way. But there are plenty of lovely homes that are on a more human scale. I spent some time walking around the neighborhood looking mostly for doors and flowers. Here are my first examples of the former.
Our Door Master these days, Dan Antion, hails from the Northeast where he’s retired but managing to keep busy in a variety of ways other than just hosting Thursday Doors. Head over to his blog to see doors from all over the world. You can get there by clicking on the highlighted link just above this paragraph.
Although the first several days of my southern California vacation were windy, cloudy, and a bit chilly, the sun finally came out, both in San Diego and in Redondo Beach and a good time was had by all. One of my daughter’s and my daily activities was taking a long walk, either by the beach or through neighborhoods with beautiful homes (and doors)…or both. We couldn’t see much of this house but they did have a lovely gate and some great planters and when there’s a four-lane road on the other side of the sidewalk, you want as much privacy as possible. Of course the other side, high above the beach and beach path, has a fantastic ocean view.
(Addendum: Due to traveling last Thursday, I forgot about the writing component of this week’s doors. Feel free to use any of these three doors as a writing prompt if you are so moved.)
If you have the money to have a home right at the edge of the hill overlooking the beach, you can also to afford enough vehicles to fill three garage spaces or perhaps you use one space for storage. But you definitely want your garage doors to match your gate.
Whatever vehicles went in those garage spots, this probably wasn’t one of them. I don’t think many people have a garage long enough for this classic beauty and certainly not with anything stored in front of it. We spotted this at the farmer’s market and it was in pristine condition.
My last real trip was a driving trip to Pasadena to visit our daughter and son-in-law. One morning after stopping for coffee, we took a drive to an upscale neighborhood to take a safe, mask-less walk. The grand houses mostly had grand gates and since the gates were closer to the road than the houses, which were often not only far from the sidewalk but behind trees and other landscaping, they were much easier to capture in iPhone photos. These three certainly didn’t let down their houses.
I’m usually too lazy to go back and look at all the doors or gates I shared in a year, but I’ve decided to make the effort this year. Of course that creates a new problem: which doors to choose?? I’m going with some favorites from each of the places I usually find doors.
The door that no one really cared about, from the visitor’s center at Saguaro National Park…
Some doors just invite you to come in. These do. When I visited southern California before Thanksgiving they invited me in…because they’re doors belonging to people I know. The inside is just as inviting and the people even more so.
I found a new app for transforming photos into drawings and painting. You’ll know the app name as I’m not paying for the version without it. But I think the results are pretty cool. I should have just told you I did them and cropped the name, but you probably wouldn’t have believed me anyway. 🙂 So just enjoy them.
Our faithful ambassa-door, Norm, has gone door-mant, but he didn’t leave us hanging. He en-doors-ed Dan at No Facilities as his replacement. Norm, thanks for hosting one of the most a-door-able challenges in the blogosphere. Dan, thanks for hosting.
I recently spent a long Memorial Day weekend in southern California (as well as Baja California), starting in Pasadena with our two daughters. I love what this parking garage owner has done with the doors to the elevators!
